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Dr. Harrell – Church History Timeline

My Photography from my October trip to Rome

50 – 500 AD

Roman Colosseum – Built in 70 AD

Roman Empire

Timeframe: 63 (Conquer Palestine) – 410 (Western Empire)

The Roman Empire brought political unity and improved travel conditions, which allowed the early Christians to travel free from wars and bandits and proselytize. Christians spread the gospel to the Jews and the Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire due to the common language of Greek and the Septuagint.

This period was marked by intermittent Christian persecution, in part because of the Trajan policy to Pliny to not seek Christian, but punish or force a recant if brought forward. This period introduced the Acts of the martyrs and martyrologies that told the story and witness of the martyr and their death.

The writings of the apologists arose due to the Trajan policy where anyone could make a claim a person was Christian, therefore it was important to squash misconceptions. The arguments were used for centuries. Justin the Martyr is an example.

St Juliana, on the left. Said to have suffered martyrdom during the Diocletian persecution in 304. Was written about by Bede in his Martyrologium

Teachers of the Faith

Timeframe: 2nd and 3rd centuries

The teachers helped to establish the doctrine of the church. Some of the leading apologists were: Irenaeus, Origen and Tertullian.

Arch of Constantine, erected 315 to celebrate the victory at Milvian Bridge

Constantine and the Edict of Milan

Timeframe: Edict in 313. Constantine reign: 306 – 337

Constantine as Roman Emperor and the edict ended widespread persecution of Christianity under Diocletian’s reign and provided the returning of property to Christians. This was the beginning of the Eastern empire Byzantium where Constantine made his residence and renamed.

Eusebius of Caesarea

Timeframe: 263- 339

Eusebius became bishop of Caesarea in 313 and was a historian. His most famous work was Ecclesiastical History, which was a prototype for later historians.

Arian Controversy and the First Council of Nicea

Timeframe: 4th Century

This was a major Christological heresy over who and what is Christ and his role. After Constantine, the church could meet to settle dispute and the First Council of Nicea met in 325. It resolved issues related to the end of persecution.

Beginning of Monasticism

Timeframe: ca 350 – 365 (p 157)

Monasticism arose in part due to the comfortable life of Christians after gaining support of the Roman Empire. Living apart from the city in rigid conditions allowed one to become a living martyr and to strengthen your faith to withstand the temptations of an easy life without persecution.

Athanasius of Alexandria and the canonization of the Bible

Timeframe: around 300 – 373

Athanasius was bishop of Alexandria. He helped to end the Arian controversy and provided the first list of the Bible in 367.

Fresco at Santa Maria Antiqua. Built in the 5th century. In the Roman Forum

Augustine of Hippo

Timeframe: b. 354 – 430 p 241

Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was a theologian whose work was influential throughout Christian history and it influenced the Reformation. He worked against Manichean, Donatist and Pelagian controversies. He wrote The City of God in response to the claim that Rome fail due to Christians.

AD 500 – 1000

Benedict of Nursia

Timeframe: 480 – 550

Benedict was the most important in the development of western monasticism. He left the Rule of St. Benedict.

Nile river god statue at Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy. Capitoline Hill and the Temple of Jupiter were built around 509. Dionysis’ work reconciled pagan and Christian thought.

Dionysius and Apophatic Theology

Timeframe: Sixth Century

The lasting influence of his work is apophatic theology or “theology-by-taking-away”. His work influenced later writers including Teresa of Avila (16th century).

Justinian

Timeframe: 527-565

Justinian was a Byzantine emperor noted for his building program and calling the Second Council of Constantinople in 553.

Tomb of St Paul at the Basilica of St John Outside the Wall in Rome. Gregory the Great placed an altar over St. Paul’s tomb and allowed access to it after confession.

Pope Gregory I

Timeframe: 540 – 604

Gregory as a pope was concerned about pastoral care, liturgy reform and the primacy of the papacy. He also provided Gregorian chant.

Muhammad and the Muslim conquest

Timeframe: 622 – 632

Many areas that were Christian were now under Muslim rule. Christian apologists and the Just War Theory developed in response.

The Golden Age of Byzantium

Timeframe: 641 – 1025

While the West went through a Dark Age, the East flowered in culture, art, military strength and religious influence.

The Venerable Bede

Timeframe: 672 – 735

Bede was a monk in an English monastery and wrote the ecclesiastical history of the English church.

Color found in nature that is used to create icons

Iconoclast Controversy

Timeframe: 726 – 843

A debate about Christology that had a core question was “Can God be represented?” Iconoclasts were the destroyers of images. Iconodules wanted images in worship.

Charlemagne

Timeframe: 771-814

Charlemagne was King of Frankish empire and revived the Roman Empire. He ushered in the Carolingian Renaissance.

John Scotus Erigena

Timeframe: ca 810 – 877

He was a great systematic thinker and a forerunner for scholasticism.

AD 1000 – 1500

Monastic Reforms: Cluny and Citeaux

Timeframe: Cluny ca 910 – ca 1157; Cistercians 11th – 12th century

The purpose of the Cluny houses was to bring back the meaning of the Rules of Benedict which were lost due to affluence and carelessness. The Cistercians were a reform of the Cluny monastery and required strict poverty.

Eucharistic Debate of the Ninth Century

Timeframe: Ninth Century

The discussion is over the nature of the Eucharistic or transubstantiation. This is forerunner to the debates of the Protestant Reformation.

Art Work – Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore

Architecture / Medieval Churches

Timeframe: 1000 – 1200
Medieval churches provided the stories of the church since people could not read or have access to books. They also provided communion.

East – West Schism

Timeframe: 1054

The Eastern and Western parts of the Roman Empire officially split into the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Crusades and the Just War Theory

Timeframe 950 – 1350

There were nine major crusades. The first was initiated by Pope Urban II in a sermon who said God wills it. The holy places were under Muslim conquest. The causes for the Crusades were various such as economic; human motivations, such as wanderlust; and political/religious.

Scholastics and the beginning of the Universities

Timeframe: First, University of Bologna 1088

The university system began by a model of a guild of masters. Schools were developed to train priests.

Santa Maria in Aracoeli. Originally build in the sixth century. The papacy gave it to the Benedictines in the tenth century. In 1249 Pope Innocent IV gave it to the Franciscans.

Mendicant Orders

Timeframe: Dominican order began in 1216. Franciscan order began in 1210

The growth of the cities brought about wealth and a big difference between the rich and the poor. The monastery response was to live by begging.

Anselm of Canterbury

Timeframe: ca 1033 – 1109

His significance to the development of scholasticism was to apply reason to faith.

St Anthony Abbot on the Esqualine. Originally built in 1266 as a hospital for the treatment of St. Anthony’s Fire, a skin disease. Attached to a monastic order which adopted the Rule of St Augustine in 1248. Rebuilt in 1481 and the priests were noted for helping Bubonic Plague sufferers. They gave medical services to the papal household.

Thomas Aquinas

Timeframe: 1225 – 1274

Aquinas served as papal theologian. He wrote the Summa Theologiae which is used today.

Great Plague

Timefame: 1347

Many people doubted the rational ordered thinking. Veneration of relics increased as well as pilgrimages.